


keep the weapons down

by Rethira



Category: Tales of Xillia
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-30
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-28 02:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/986336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/pseuds/Rethira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a quiet war</p>
            </blockquote>





	keep the weapons down

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jonphaedrus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonphaedrus/gifts).



> this is a pretty heavily experimental piece, just so you know
> 
> much of this is connected to Vienna Teng's song Antebellum

there’s no time

no time for grief

no time for sorrow

no time at all

 

once, in rowen’s youth – and oh, how long ago that feels – he’d dreamt a perfect world; a world without war without suffering without fear

once, when he was older and wiser, he’d thought he might even live to see that world appear

now, he sees that the dream will not be real in his life time, but he greets that knowledge with a smile

 

it’s a private war, a short war

a civil war though in the sense of civility rather than the traditional meaning

a polite war so polite only two people know it exists

rowen meets nachtigal’s eyes across a packed throne room and he thinks _perhaps i should end this_

 

carrie lives in nachtigal’s dreams

carrie dies in rowen’s

 

an antebellum innocence

 

“i’m going away,” rowen admits

“i’ll see you when you return,” nachtigal replies

he doesn’t look up from his desk, and rowen misses the way his hands tremble

they both know rowen won’t be back

 

rowen dreams of an eternal summer; the grass tall and golden, the trees with full, thick leaves and the sun warm on their skin

a summer of their youth, though youth is perhaps something of a misnomer

carrie laughs and lives in those dreams and the three of them run, young and free, through endless fields of wildflowers

 

rowen draws up border lines, keeps safe behind them, keeps his wounds locked up tight in his heart

 

they both have their place, their home

he keeps his weapons down and perhaps that is his downfall

 

there shall be no armistice day

 

_such things i have lost_ , rowen thinks

_but not, i fear, as much as he has_

gaius kneels beside wingul’s broken body and weeps

 

the border lines are breached with cline’s death

 

_this is not nachtigal,_ he wants to cry out

_not the nachtigal_ i _knew_

__“please not now,” nachtigal says

“please not now”

 

the war starts after carrie dies

the war ends after nachtigal dies

 

it is not the end rowen would have chosen

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [border lines](https://archiveofourown.org/works/997789) by [jonphaedrus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonphaedrus/pseuds/jonphaedrus)




End file.
